How much should Portsmouth spend on new police station? Councilors disagree.

PORTSMOUTH — A discussion Tuesday about where a new city police station should be located focused instead on why cost estimates are so high, whether the facility needs to be as big as proposed, and if the city should consider a “hybrid option.”

Deputy City Manager Suzanne Woodland said a hybrid model would include renovating sections of the existing police station, and building a new structure on the lower parking lot of the City Hall campus.

“There may be some pieces of the current police department program that would be appropriate in a new structure and maybe some pieces of the existing facility that is in City Hall here, that could be renovated,” Woodland said during a City Council work session Tuesday night on the proposed “Community Policing Facility.” She said such a proposal is ”somewhat linked to the campus idea,” meaning that the police station and other City Hall operations staying at the same location.

“We have not done that exercise. That’s one option that we have not fully explored because it’s a process,” Woodland said.

A police station working group in November revealed cost estimates for a new station that came in $20 million to $30 million higher than expected, depending on its proposed location on city-owned land.

The City Council had included a new police station project in the Capital Improvement Plan, which came in at $42.2 million, and included all costs.

Estimates range from $61.9 million to $72.6 million

The lowest estimate for a new station came in at $61.9 million at the lower City Hall parking lot site. The highest came in at $72.6 million to renovate and put additions on the existing station.

Building a new station on the Granite Street site is estimated to cost $68.8 million, while a new facility at the former Sherburne School site would cost $68.1 million and locating a new station at Clough Drive near Little Harbour School comes in at $66.9 million, according to figures released at the November meeting.

City Councilor Beth Moreau said she loves “the idea of the hybrid.”

“I think we could really lower our costs if we try to keep some of the facility or programs as you put it, in this building, but then also build that new structure,” she said during Tuesday’s meeting.

She added that such an approach “keeps the sort of campus strategy that we mentioned.”

In terms of a location, Moreau said she was “not really interested in going to sites other than the lower lot at this point.”

“It makes the most sense, if we can get something there that is expandable,” Moreau added.

Residents ask why a new station is needed

City Councilor Kate Cook said the feedback she’s received from residents is “why do we need a police station?”

“I have to say our policing is good in the community. I commend you for that,” Cook said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We have an extremely low crime rate in the community. I’m still at the stage where I’m asking about needs and needs assessment, before I’m jumping to where you put it.”

She also asked “what is the average size of a police station in a community of our population with our crime rate.”

“I’m looking at these communities that were provided to us, and I can tell you the one that’s comparable in size, as far as square footage, has a much higher crime rate than we do. It's a much larger city,” she said, referencing a list of other recent police station projects in the area.

More local news: Portsmouth moves free parking at holidays to garages in 2023

How much do police stations cost in other cities?

The Portsmouth police station working group has proposed building a new 57,700-square-foot station, according to documents posted on the police department’s web site.

The Beverly, Massachusetts, police station that was completed in 2021, cost $20 million and is 32,000 square feet, according to the document.

A new station completed this year in Leominster, Massachusetts, cost $28 million and is 30,000 square feet, according to the working group’s data.

The Shrewsbury, Mass., station completed in 2022 cost $37 million and is 45,000 square feet.

In the document posted this week, the group states that a new Portsmouth station on Granite Street would cost $55.5 million, but would not include “the training, maintenance garage, stranded or field replacement costs.”

Cook said she toured the existing station “in the last few weeks. We’ve done considerable improvements to the space, I agree that there is definitely deficiencies."

She added that she “definitely would not be in favor of moving it away from the campus model we have. I have to explain it to the taxpayers why we’re spending so many millions of dollars on a police station."

Tabor: Current station is inadequate

City Councilor John Tabor, who has served on the police station working group, said “public safety is an essential core function we can’t do without.”

He called the current station off Junkins Avenue “inadequate.”

“It’s not organized the way a modern community police department needs to run, it’s (got) poor work conditions,” Tabor said.

“To keep the city, the downtown, the restaurants, the parks safe, it takes 62 sworn officers and a total staff of 95,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting.

It's the number of employees and police programs that “drives the square footage and the cost,” he said.

He added that the estimated construction costs are “in line to what’s being built right now.”

He believes the hybrid option has “a lot of opportunities if we can phase the project, keep the shooting range and vehicle maintenance where they are, (and) build on the lower lot.”

“We sort of have to look at the $42 million. We have to go through the exercise of what that would be,” Tabor said. “I think we’ll find that that will be inadequate.”

Crime is not Portsmouth's top issue

City Councilor Andrew Bagley said his expectation was “we’d get something back that closely matched” the $42.2 million estimate in the Capital Improvement Plan.

“I’d like to see the police station come in at $25 to $30 million to give you a number to work with,” Bagley said. “The reason I’d like to see it come in there, we’re a very safe community, we may have large parades, we may have large events, a lot of restaurant seats, but crime is not the number one issue in our community.

“The number one issue in our community is affordable housing, the quality of our schools, which requires a lot of funding, the quality of the infrastructure of the roads, all of these things cost money and there’s only so much money to go around,” Bagley said.

When he referenced an indoor track that was in previous police station plans, he was told that was no longer part of the programming.

Facility has been deferred for 20 years

Outgoing Police Commission Chair Stefany Shaheen interjected, and said, “let’s be careful with the language we’re using relative to what we’re trying to prioritize.”

“We need to engage the community and prioritize how to make this happen. This facility has been deferred for 20-plus years,” she said.

She said because of the existing station conditions, there are times when there are “officers who work in the basement and don’t see light for an entire day.

“We’re all here together to figure out how to make this work for the community at a rate we can afford,” Shaheen said. “But the only way we’re going to get there is if we are careful about what we say, how we represent what we’re prioritizing, and not be quick to be critical without actually understanding what’s at stake here.”

She agreed that crime wasn’t the city’s number one issue, but stated “that’s because wer’e doing our job under very difficult circumstances and we’ve got to change that.”

Mayor Deaglan McEachern also stated that he believes “everyone in the community” understands that a new station “needs to happen.”

“The numbers that came back are extraordinary high,” he said.

The current station is located in a former hospital building.

Police say it’s too small, the space they have is cramped and congested, the air quality is often poor, and they have had to remediate mold for years.

The layout of the station is also poor. For example, when a suspect is bailed out, police have to walk that person unhandcuffed from a holding cell, through the station, to the lobby.

Because Tuesday’s meeting was a workshop session, there were no formal votes.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: How much should Portsmouth NH spend on new police station?